Pages

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Good Neighbors #1: Kin

It's happened! I finally finished a book.

I made a trip to the library a few days ago in search of Carrie Ryan's second novel, The Dead Tossed Waves. While I was there, I happened upon Holly Black's graphic novel, The Good Neighbors: Kin. This is the first book in the series, and I zipped through it last night and this morning. I've gotta tell you, while it's not the best book I've ever read, it was delightful to finish something!

Kin is the story of a teenager named Rue Silver, daughter to an unnaturally beautiful woman and a professor. Early on, the mother, Nia, goes missing, and a local college student is killed. Rue's father is blamed for the murder, and the officials assume he's offed his wife, too. Rue refuses to believe it, and soon she's seeing very odd things: faeries. As it turns out, her mother is one, which makes her part faery as well.

The story seemed a little thin overall, but it's just the first book in the series, so I'm hoping it gets a little more significant as it rolls along. As it turns out, my library doesn't even have the second book, so it looks like I'll be ILL'ing it or just waiting 'til they decide to add it to the collection.The highlight of Kin was undoubtedly Ted Naifeh's artwork. This is one of the pages from the book so you can get an idea. I love the richness of the black and white, and I'm especially fond of the closeups. The faery characters are very angular and lovely--dangerous-looking. I thought he captured them perfectly. The illustrations, with the closeups I mentioned, are very cinematic. Moreso than in some other graphic novels I've read.

To see more of his work and read his blog, visit Ted Naifeh's website.

I've heard endless good things about Holly Black. Her book, Tithe, always seems to be a YA favorite. While I can't say this book is going on my favorites list, I will most definitely attempt to continue with the series, and I would like to check out more of her work. Luckily, the library does have Tithe.